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[Friday, February 22, 2008 - 09.40 GMT]
New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) yesterday
(21) called for UN sanctions on the LTTE and Karuna for using
child soldiers.
“The LTTE and the Karuna group continue to use
children to fight their battles in clear violation of
international law and Security Council resolutions,” said Jo
Becker, children’s rights advocate at Human Rights Watch. “The
Security Council should punish their brazen violations with
concrete action.”
Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council to
give both the LTTE and the Karuna group 30 days to release all
children in their ranks and end all new recruitment. If they
fail to do so, the Security Council should impose arms
embargoes, and travel bans and asset freezes on the leadership.
Human Rights Watch noted that the LTTE failed to
release all children from its ranks by December 31, 2007, a
deadline it agreed to under the terms of an action plan signed
on October 15, 2007. On January 31, 2008, UNICEF reported 1,430
outstanding cases of LTTE child recruitment, including at least
196 children still under the age of 18 in the LTTE ranks.
In a separate report specifically on Sri Lanka
issued in December, the secretary-general noted that the Karuna
group continued to abduct children, and had failed to
effectively engage with the United Nations to end child
recruitment.
Human Rights Watch is recommending Security Council sanctions against the Karuna group for the first time, due to its continual violations of international standards.
Human Rights Watch urged the Security Council to
give both the LTTE and the Karuna group 30 days to release all
children in their ranks and end all new recruitment. If they
fail to do so, the Security Council should impose arms
embargoes, and travel bans and asset freezes on the leadership.
Human Rights Watch also called upon the UN
Security Council to publicly condemn the Sri Lankan government
for failing to investigate cases of child abduction and
recruitment in government-controlled territory, and the
complicity of its security forces in abductions by the Karuna
group.
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